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Abstract
Bachelor thesis Collapse of the USSR - Russian national tragedy? Analysis of
the Russian public opinion on the dissolution of the Soviet Union discusses the
Russian public opinion development about the end of the Soviet Union during the
presidency of Boris Yeltsin (1991 - 1999) and Vladimir Putin (2000 - 2008). The first
chapter illustrates the situation in Russia after the collapse of the USSR; afterwards it
describes the social, political and economic situation of the country during mentioned
periods.
Based on the available opinion polls and academic works the second part of
the thesis examines the shift in Russian understanding of the collapse of the Soviet
Union. The fundamental premise of this thesis is the idea that the end of the USSR
was Russian national tragedy. After the analysis author concludes that in Russian
society during the presidency of both Yeltsin and Putin remained a basic level of post-
Soviet nostalgia, yet it wasn´t a national tragedy. The regretting was presented within
the older generation, for which the Soviet Union symbolized not only a major global
player in international politics, but also their own (often idealized) youth, as well as
within the younger generation, that has never had direct experience with the USSR.
Furthermore author concludes that due to the worsening economic and political
situation during the Boris Yeltsin´s term the degree of nostalgia grew significantly,
while the introduction of a new leadership style (that included partly the Soviet
features and methods) presented by Vladimir Putin dropped the amount of nostalgia
distinctly. The regretting of USSR’s demise therefore depended mainly on economic
situation in Russia, secondly on ability of the Russian state to use the advantage of
soviet-era characteristics.